Grunting

Life is starting to pick up to a canter and I have booked myself in for Khmer lessons once per week... It is the first time that I have ever purposefully tried to learn another language and it kind of makes me feel like one of the recruits I had to train. The story goes that there was one not-so-sunny day in waiouru and we were doing a patrol through a close country environment, one section was up ahead and the platoon sergeant was leading that section. The ground was quite step and every time you turned around there were just trees in your face. The platoon sergent asked the lead scout to go ahead and find the best route... The lead scout goes away and comes back and the platoon sergent asks him 'what is it like to the east' recruit says 'steep and lots of trees' so the platoon sergent says 'how about the of to the west' recruit replies 'steep and yeah it still has a lot of trees', 'well which way is better!?', 'I don't know', 'what do you mean you don't know!?, I need you to scout out the best route for us', 'but sarge it's all the same!?'

And that is exactly how I feel when I am trying to speak Khmer... If I say 'name' without a breathiness at the end it means small cat, if I say 'hot' (as in hot coffee) without elongating the vowel it is slang for penis and if I say 'help' with the vowels too short it means I am asking someone for sex! Holy moly! I can't see the wood for the trees!

And to compound the matter I am trying to learn to write as well, there are 33 consonants (divided into two groups) and 23 vowels, but don't worry because if the vowels sound different depending on which consonant group it is attached to! I've now taken to spending my mornings and spare time between patients trying to grunt and groan the sounds associated with each symbol... I'm sure I must be a worry to the neighbours! Can I blame it on the yoga?